The Rise of the Sun Prince - Shubha Vilas

The Rise of the Sun Prince by Shubha Vilas is essentially the part one (Bala Kanda) of the indian scripture Ramayana as written by the sage Valmiki, mixed with a few anecdotes and embellishments from the Kamba Ramayana (another version of the sacred text). I am not here to write a commentary on the scripture, it has been returned way too many times. As far as my review of Ramayana goes I will just for a line from this book. "Ramayana is not a book, it is a way of life".

Unlike the numerous renditions of the epic out there, what makes this one stand out is a set of essential yet simple qualities. The book is simple yet elaborate, the story is decomposed just enough for the casual reader to understand and yet it is sophisticated enough to prevent itself from being turned into yet another soulless recital. Vilas has added more than enough description and commentary to the age old tale that at times it's just annoying to see the sheer volume of his commentary wrestling out the epic out of it's own pages.

The story is retold with much detail and sans boring rhetoric. This is not a book for serious and concerned study of Ramayana, but it is all you would want if the aim is to reread the fables or just to tell your kids the famous bedtime story of India. This is the book that you could want your children to read if you want them to be part of that wonderful world of kings, queens and the many many adventures that you were once part of.

This book comes with a rather colorful front- page and spills on to about 250 pages. Jaico does a good job with the packaging and delivers the content for a sum of 250 Indian rupees (that's hardly 4 dollars and odd cents). yep books in India are rather cheap. My verdict is that it's a good book to have for your kids to read and for you to casually brush up the story.

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Disclaimer : The above review of The Rise of the Sun Prince by Shubha Vilas has been written in association with Jaico Publishing House. 

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

The book is unarguably beautiful but what is more beautiful is the untrained idea of death that is portrayed. Make no mistake this book is first and foremost about death and death alone, it talks of no survivors nor of martyrs. It takes of death as is. It talks of death as not having neither a prequel nor an epilogue bit one that is abrupt and harkens in the midst of life. It talks of that death that is quick, comes unannounced and interrupts life in it's track. Beautiful and realistic. 

This book is a crier, it's a book on cancer and it odd meant to be a crier. It touches you and leaves in it's wake a mark. It talks of a life in the verge of collapse and the struggle to be alive. It is the story of Hazel and Augustus and their unlikely romance, but it's not entirely a love story. It talks of their struggle with cancer but it's not a cancer book. It tasks of their family and the living and the subtle relationship they hold with the dying, their agony, their helplessness and their devastation but it's not just about it either. This book is about death and about dying and never about living.

It paints one of the best portrait of death i have read. This story of a star crossed cancer carrying couple and their enthrall eventual death. Thankfully the author does give the user some reprieve and doesn't abruptly stops his book like in the end of An Imperial Affliction by Houtten a frictional book but still it trails of in the midst but not before closure is delivered.

I rate this a four for all the buckets it filled with my tears and for the beautiful panorama of death it inscribes.

Amazon : The Fault in our Stars by John Green: